Environmental Effects of Fusion Power Plants. Part I: Effluents Other than Tritium
- 1 November 1987
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Fusion Technology
- Vol. 12 (3), 341-353
- https://doi.org/10.13182/fst87-a25067
Abstract
Radioactive and nonradioactive effluents will be released routinely during normal operation of near-term commercial fusion power reactors. Nonradioactive effluents will be essentially the same as those released at conventional steam-electric power plants. Radioactive effluents will consist of activated corrosion products and tritium. Most radioactive releases will originate from liquid-waste processing systems and from ventilation systems of various buildings where radioactivity may become airborne. These effluents will have some potential for environmental impact; however, the significance of the impact will depend in part on the concentration and release rate of the effluent. The type of reactor design (e.g., tokamak, mirror, etc.) has minimal influence on activation product releases. Activation products released are influenced primarily by the materials chosen for structural components, and the quantities released are influenced primarily by the coolant choice. The most likely choices for the coolant are water and helium. Preliminary release estimates for water- and helium-cooled fusion reactors are found to be similar to those of fission reactors with the same coolant and of comparable size and structural materials. Data are insufficient to do more than speculate about normal releases from liquid-metal-cooled reactors.Keywords
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